FORT DUCHESNE'S BEGINNINGS
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FORT DUCHESNE'S BEGINNINGS By Henry Fiack I shall try and give the story of Fort Duchesne as near as I can remember. We were stationed, (I. K. F. and C. Companies, 21st U. S. Infantry) at Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming, at a point where the U. P. Railroad crosses the North Platte River. The latter part of July, or early in August, 1887, at 9 o'clock p. m., our senior captain in command, Captain Duncan, received orders from the War Department to abandon Fort Steele and proceed by special train and in all haste to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and there await the arrival of Brigadier General Crook, and receive further orders from him, as to our destination. At 11 o'clock p. m. that same night we were on board of a special train under heavy marching order, and started for Carter station, Wyoming, and from there marched eleven miles to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. General Crook arrived in due time at Fort Bridger, handed our commander, Captain Duncan, a package of sealed orders, directed us to follow the road by way of Fort Thornberg and old Ashley, until we arrived on the banks of the Uintah River, there open our sealed orders and await his coming, which we did. From Ashley to the Uintah River you had your choice of two roads, one was by way of Deep Creek and the other the regular traveled road, but much longer than the Deep Creek road. So our commander, always looking for short cuts, decided to take the Deep Creek road. Just before breaking camp that morning, which came nearly being another "Custer Affair," one, "Captain Billy," Indian Police, arrived on a foaming steed and warned us not to go near the Deep Creek road, because about 300 Ute braves were ambushed along some of the deep cuts along that road, bent on another massacre like the ones just previous to our coming, at Fort Thornberg and Fort Meeker, on the lower Ouray in Colorado. We took the regular traveled road, marched about thirty miles without water or anything to eat, arrived on the banks of the Uintah river about 4 o'clock p. m., and so did General Crook in an Army Ambulance, and confronted about 700 Indians, Ute and Ouray in full war dress and paint, and hostile, as hostile can be. Our first act was to throw out a picket line and the remainder of our tiny command started to dig in, or in other words, to dig trenches, a task we accomplished in a surprisingly short time. W e stayed in the trenches for three weeks, short on ammunition and provisions, put on a bold front, displayed our triangle shaped bayonets to the best advantage, and succeeded in
